Trail of drugs misery
TIMELINE
JUNE 2014: Eric Reid and Harry Ingle set up the Vitamin and Supplement Co as a front for importing etizolam and drug materials from China.
Reid is found slumped unconscious at the wheel of his BMW. He admits making fake Valium on an “industrial scale”.
Scott McGaw is caught on CCTV in boiler suit at Paisley drugs factory.
Six days later, etizolam is made illegal.
Daily Record publishes first “blue plague” story after discovering cluster of deaths in Ayrshire.
We tell how six friends from Glasgow died within months of each other after taking etizolam.
Two days later, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tells police to launch a crackdown on the blue pill menace. A KINGPIN who faces jail for running Scotland’s biggest drugs factory was behind other fake Valium operations.
Businessman Eric Reid, 45, played a major role in flooding Scotland with deadly designer drug etizolam.
He raked in cash while the blue pills that his gang were churning out by the million were killing drug addicts.
Reid has been involved in the drugs trade since 2012. He made a fortune from making etizolam pills – known as the blue plague – but he was untouchable for years.
That’s partly because etizolam was originally classed as a legal high. It was only made illegal in May 2016.
At one point, police seized a machine capable of making 250,000 pills an hour. But they had to hand it back after Reid proved the tablets were not banned at the time.
Reid’s involvement in the evil trade makes sickening reading.
In 2015, he was banned from being a director for eight years after it became clear he was using a dodgy company as a front for drug-dealing.
He set up another company as a front for a drugs factory in Paisley. When he found out council officials were coming to pay a visit, he told them he was liquidating the firm to avoid inspection.
But the law finally caught up with Reid.
At the High Court in Glasgow this week, he and three other men were convicted of running the Paisley drugs factory.
Advocate Depute Jane Farquharson said of Reid: “He has a cool head on a businessman’s shoulders.”
A source close to the case said: “Reid was a crafty opportunist who saw an open goal in making money BY MARK MCGIVERN Chief Reporter from the sale of legal high pills. He had connections who could distribute massive numbers to housing schemes, mainly in Glasgow and other areas.
“When Reid’s drugs became illegal, he couldn’t bear to let others come in and take the profit, so he tried to step into the shadows and let others be there to take the rap if police appeared.
“But he left enough clues for the jury to see he was one of the guys running the show.”
The source added: “On their own, it’s impossible to say how many people etizolam killed – but they would very often be the component that put heroin and methadone users over the edge.”
Reid’s downfall was pure greed. He was making a fortune from etizolam and with an insatiable demand from gangster dealers and addicts, he refused to walk away when the pills became illegal.
By this time, Reid was a known player in the trade and drugs squad officers were monitoring his movements.
It was only a matter of time before his empire came crashing down – and not before time.
Reid, who inherited his father’s well-established Paisley garage, received an eight-year directorship ban in October 2015 after police flagged him up to the Insolvency Service as a drugs manufacturer.
His company were liquidated for failing to keep proper accounting records, with £190,000 in dodgy transactions identified.
A year before that, Reid had set up another company with Harry Ingle to import etizolam and other drug materials from China.
Chemicals were being sent by FedEx to Reid’s garage premises at Underwood Road in Paisley.
In March 2016, Reid was found slumped at the wheel of his £70,000 BMW near the garage.
As etizolam was a legal high at the time, he happily told police he